"Traditional defences such as firewalls and IPS' [Internet Protocol Security] don't protect web applications, thus dedicated technology to protect against this threat are needed," he said.

"This trend is not going to stop anytime soon until the adoption of web application firewalling is increased."

Another trend Lightowler sees is insider threat, but not in the traditional sense.

"We used to see insider threat as a malicious internal employee, but what we're seeing today is compromised insiders," he said.

This has meant businesses are getting infected by remote access Trojans, which are enabling cyber criminals to siphon off data and steal intellectual property.

"This trend has been acknowledged by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security in the US, as well as local authorities, and we see this trend driving a big focus on data security," Lightowler said.

Due diligence

2012 has already been a busy year for Impreva, with the application security vendor opening two new offices in Australia and doubling its head count in the last 12 months.

Lightowler attributes this growth to Imperva winning several large, strategic accounts, as well as expanding its distribution network and reseller channel, which has opened up more mid-market and above opportunities.

"We've been winning a lot of business in very large banks, insurance, telecommunications and government, but the enablement of our distribution network has really helped us to reach a larger portion of the smaller end of the market," he said.

"We've also added a number of new technologies to our product portfolio, specifically a Cloud and Sharepoint security offering, which has really helped us expand into new verticals within the technology stack," Lightowler said.

While 2012 was a good one for Imperva, Lightowler admits that some aspects of the market were challenging compared to past years.

For one, organisations were prudent as ever with all of their spending, predominantly with technology used for security reasons.

"It's important as ever, but there's more due diligence being done on all projects," Lightowler said.

So while Imperva continue to grow and add new customers, Lightowler says that it often seems that projects are not being awarded as quickly.

"Things are taking a lot more time as organisations go through this due diligence," he said.